A photograph of Luis Muñoz Marín, governor of Puerto Rico from 1949 to 1965, speaking at the Governors Conference in San Juan, 1959.

A photograph of Luis Muñoz Marín, governor of Puerto Rico from 1949 to 1965, speaking at the Governors Conference in San Juan, 1959.

At this 1959 meeting of state governors in San Juan, Marín said, “Just as Western Europe is developing a closer economic and a closer political interdependence, based on freedom, so do I believe in the eventual realization of a closer, pragmatic partnership between all the peoples of the Americas.” Marín worked with US authorities to implement Operation Bootstrap policies to encourage American investment and industrialization in Puerto Rico during the 1950s and 1960s.